res had been designed, an
expression of thoughtful attention, of earnest and loving sympathy, was
clearly conveyed in the face.

In this position she had sat before him while he told her his unhappy
story. Amid all the remembrances of the past his eyes had been
enchained by the charm of the present, and with that strange,
independent action of the artistic temperament, that capacity of the
senses for observing closely while the soul smarts and bleeds, he had
taken in every line of the beloved figure.

Then, when he had returned to his studio, where Felix did not make his
appearance that day, and no one else broke his solitude, he had begun,
at first with a careless hand, to form from a piece of clay the picture
that never left him, until at length he had grown serious over his
pastime, and had produced in an incredibly short time the whole
charming figure. A spirit of life, a natural grace, breathed through
the whole work, and was still further heightened by its diminutive
proportions, reminding one of the fairy-tale about the pygmy maiden who
was carried about by her happy lover in a casket.

The aesthetic professor took advantage of the occasion to hold forth
concerning sitting statues from the time of the Agrippinas down to that
of Marie Louise in Parma; about the importance of portraits in general,
and about other profound subjects of like nature. As for Stephanopulos,
he was sincerely carried away by the charm of the figure, and expressed
his admiration in enthusiastic terms.

The countess remained silent for a considerable time. Enthusiastically
as she had expressed herself concerning Jansen's other works; she
evidently found it hard to conquer a certain jealousy in regard to this
beautiful woman.

"How often did the lady sit to you?" she asked, at length.

He answered, with a peculiar smile, that he had made the sketch from
memory.

"Really? Then you are something more than a magician. You not only
conjure up spirits, but spirit and body together. To be sure, we know
what helping spirit assists artists in their works of magic--a spirit
that rules all other men, and is the servant of genius only.--Or don't
you believe, professor," said she, turning to her companion, "that
Raphael and Titian could conjure up those whom they loved before their
imaginations more vividly than they could other mortals?"

The professor delivered a few brilliant remarks about the power of
fancy, which the countess received with